#ah...tender icons. excellent

[lowkeyren]

—my muse, my cure.

in which : both you and jiaoqiu are deeply concerned about each other's health but have an unconventional way of showing it.

pairing : jiaoqiu x gn!reader

wc 850, established relationship, 2.5 spoilers woops (but this isn't angst trust), also ib by an iconic line in 2.5 iykwim, art by @/Lianzi_ on x, reblogs r much appreciated!!!

how do we get a picky eater to eat green peppers?

being a picky eater isn't easy, especially when you have a sly fox like jiaoqiu in your kitchen.

you think you're safe when you see a simple, mouthwatering dish; but with him, there's always a catch. beneath the savoury aroma of perfectly cooked meatballs or the comforting warmth of a soup, he hides the things you avoid —finely diced peppers, a hint of spice, or icky vegetables you swore you’d never touch.

jiaoqiu doesn’t say a word, but the way his ears twitch gives him away. he watches with a subtle, knowing grin as you take a bite, waiting for you to realize what he’s done. though by the time you do notice, it’s already too late. despite your best efforts, the subtle icky flavour of green peppers have already permeated your taste buds.

“you didn’t even notice, did you?” he teases, his voice laced with mischief.

you shoot him a glare as you reluctantly finish the dish, the flavours blending together so seamlessly that you almost forget what you were trying to avoid in the first place. (seems like his culinary skills managed to win you over once again)

“that’s not very polite of you, doctor.” 

jiaoqiu’s smile widens at your response. “ah, come on now,” he says, feigning a hurt expression. “it's all in good fun. besides, you know those peppers are packed with vitamins. it’s good for you.”

you let out an exaggerated sigh, your irritation still simmering. “well, just because your dish turned out good, don’t think i’m letting you off the hook that easily,” you say, rolling your eyes, though a small smile tugs at the corners of your mouth.

jiaoqiu only chuckles at your response, clearly amused. “i see how it is,” his tone taking on a teasing lilt as he steps a little closer, “you best stay on your guard then, dearest.” 

“how do we get a picky eater to eat green peppers?” the answer is quite simple. chop the peppers and mix them with minced meat to make meatballs, allowing the meat’s flavor to mask the peppers so even your fussy spouse can enjoy them.

how do we get a stubborn doctor to drink his medicine?

being a doctor isn't easy, especially when you’re injured and your partner is more worried about your own health than you are.

“qiu’er, i’m back!” the sound of your voice instantly draws his attention, he turns his head in your direction, the subtle rustle of sheets accompanying his movement. the bed dips slightly under your weight as you settle beside him, the warmth of your presence soothing. “here, i brought you some tea,” you murmur. 

“careful, it’s hot.” you gently lift the cup to his lips, the steam rising and carrying with it the sweet, spiced scent of cinnamon —he immediately notices the strong overpowering smell right away.

ah… cinnamon? so you took his advice from years ago, but unfortunately a fox’s senses are sharper than most. 

his nose scrunches slightly as the liquid gently brushes against his lips. “spiked my tea with something, dearest?” you pause, setting the cup down with a soft clink. though just as you’re about to retort, his hand reaches out, searching for you with a gentle touch. his fingers graze your arm, then find your hand, which he clasps with a tender grip.

“cinnamon is excellent for masking strong odors and is even used to conceal the scent of poison... but you wouldn’t be so cruel to me, would you?” he remarks with a playful smile, though there’s an ironic edge to his words, given his current condition.

you let out an exasperated sigh, “you wouldn’t take your medicine, qiu’er. i never thought you’d be such a stubborn doctor.” 

he chuckles softly, the sound low and a little raspy. “stubborn? i prefer ‘selective.’” his grip on your hand tightening ever so slightly. “and i chose to have you as my doctor.” 

“if it means i get to be the one who takes care of you, then i’ll gladly accept that,” you reply, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. “now get some rest —doctor’s orders.” you help him settle back on the bed, careful not to accidentally press on his bandaged wounds, before gently pulling the sheets up to cover him.

you lean down to kiss the crown of his head, running your fingers through his hair in a soothing, rhythmic motion. “i’m only following your orders, baobei,” he mumbles softly, his words trailing off as he drifts into a peaceful sleep.

today the sun may blaze brightly in the sky, but its brilliance fades next to the warmth of your smile, a light that, though he may not be able to see, touches his heart more profoundly than the brightest day ever could.

how do we get a stubborn doctor to drink his medicine? easy. disguise it in a comforting cup of tea, masking the bitterness with cinnamon, so even he won’t notice until it’s too late. of course, your tricks never really fool him, but he lets you win anyway.

homeboy has been through so much

MASTERLIST.

[tsume-awase]

@mechanicosmia

“...”

Kamakiri’s chest aches at the sight of Sil looking so forlorn, so distraught. The mer sits in strained silence by the bed, bent low all at once under the weight of innumerable years. Frustration sits familiarly on Sil’s features, but defeat? Despondence? It seems to drag the very air itself low and oppressive on their shoulders.

He swallows. It feels cruel to stand and observe him this way, like some historian reflecting on unknown epochs. The poignance of Sil’s distress has struck him still and stiff.

That won’t do at all. 

“...hey.”

He approaches, reaches to brush his fingertips feather-light against Sil’s shoulder. When he receives no response, he takes a seat at his side. 

“You want to know something I really,” fluttering nerves nearly seal his throat shut, but he persists. Now isn’t the time. “...really love about you?”

Silence. Kamakiri takes a breath and holds it, wills his thoughts together into coherency. 

"You make me feel...important. Not because of who you are, or what you're capable of, or that you...I don’t know. Chose me. However you’d call it.”

His breath leaves in a rueful laugh, gaze faltering. “Though i guess that's part of it too. but it's.”

Again, the words seem to stick to his tongue, and Kamakiri concentrates. brow furrowed. 

“I-It's like...the way you see the world. That you've been here for so long and look at things so differently but you don't just...give up on it.”

I would. That part sits ugly and unspoken in the back of his mind, but it’s unimportant, utterly dwarfed by the warmth that settles over him when he thinks of Sil teaching, head held high and eyes gleaming.

“You believe in what you're doing after all this time and I just...so many self-proclaimed skeptics love using knowledge to shut people out and make them feel small--make everything feel small and worthless and like it's a waste of effort to even care when it's all vast and empty in the end.

...but you look at it all and--and you take in these innumerable variables and you make me remember how--how unbelievable it is that it all exists to begin with. You make me want to do everything I can for the universe I live in. Like you do. You make me feel like. Like what I do could matter. And that’s amazing, okay? It...it really is.” 

[aries-rising-on-an-aquarius-tide]

Evocations: XVI

The Chief District Attorney drafts an over-eager redhead with too much to prove, to replace Alexandra within just a few weeks. Liv allows the natural rhythm of the work to sweep her along, pouring herself into it in order to keep the loneliness and the mourning at bay.

Darcie and Alexander check in regularly enough, even after the sale of the apartment is settled, two months after being on the market. She is genuinely touched that they call, but dreads it, too - being forced to sit in her sadness for that brief period every few weeks.

Elliot checks in too, in his own way. For the first couple months he pretends that he is being subtle about it: asking her if she's eaten, glancing at her fridge every time he stops by her apartment, making sure she is the first to nap in the cribs if they have a lull. As Christmas approached, he suggested drinks or pizza outside of work more often. He made it clear Olivia was welcome to celebrate Christmas with his family.

But Liv didn't want company. She didn't want Christmas. All she wanted was her life back, and if she couldn't have that, she wanted to work. So, she put her head down and plodded forward.

It was late in January when the phone call came. Olivia grabbed the phone on the first ring, assuming it was a case about to break. On the other end of the line, though, was Alexander's voice. Immediately, a chill snaked down Liv's spine. The Cabots never called her at work.

"Olivia," Alex's father said quietly, and the knot of tears in his throat was audible, "we lost Darcie."

Liv went stiff in her wheeled chair, fixing her eyes on a pile of paperwork in front of her. She listened to Alexander's soft voice telling her the basic details, all the while thinking of how he believed he had lost his entire family, when Alex was somewhere still alive.

She assures him she will call when she arranges her flight, and ends the call, walking straight into Cragen's office where she tells him she needs time off.

.

.

Alex has never been so sick of a winter as she is of that first Winter in Wisconsin. She has three layers to strip out of as she comes through the door at the end of the day, and Sky impatiently dances circles as she does so, waiting for her dinner.

Her job now is at an insurance firm. Not selling it, thank God, mostly just auditing and reviewing applications. Like everything else she has undertaken, the job is easy and she excels. Her skills are painfully underused in the position, and she is already exhausted with it by January.

Tina, her 'sister,' continues to see her regularly. Behind closed doors, they are acquaintances at best; any hope of having a close friend in the woman had sailed very early-on. Alex is, in fact, surrounded by acquaintances - in co-workers, at the stores she frequents, in her neighborhood. But nobody gets close.

Close isn't an option any more. Every time she forgets to respond for a beat to 'Emily,' every time she sees someone new, Alex is chilled through, wondering if she has been found out. She worries about people asking the wrong questions, about strangers who look at her a moment too long.

Is this the day? she has asked herself a thousand times, Is today the day I die?

In the bathroom mirror, she runs her fingers over the scar from her bullet wound, and tries to convince her reflection that she is Emily now. She practices it like daily affirmations, trying to accept her isolation, her loneliness, her confusion.

Once Sky is fed, Alex reheats some chicken soup for herself (she has refused to cook anything but hot meals since the first snowfall), and takes it to the spot where she has set up her desk and PC. She has gotten into the habit of keeping up with the news in New York, and in Dallas where her parents are; in her email are dozens of newspaper subscriptions she uses to keep on top of SVU cases and other tidbits.

A foot rubs Sky absently under the desk as Alex eats her soup and reads. Outside the doors to her back patio, the snow swirls and flutters with no end in sight to the frozen dairyland's stasis. This is when she sees it.

It rolls up on the screen of her digital copy of The Dallas Morning News:

Beloved Wife of Prominent Local Attorney Passes, Community Mourns

Below it, she reads her parents' names . . . her own name, words that she knows are a part of her real life, but at first she can't make them feel real. Again and again, she reads the blurb about the death of her mother, and the recent death of herself.

My mother is dead.

Mom has died.

Alex repeats the fact, continues to paraphrase it, until she rises from the computer and walks back to the kitchen with her half-eaten soup. Laying the bowl in the sink, she stares blankly into the receptacle until she feels the burn of her fingernails cutting into her palm.

When she looks up from her bleeding hands, her eyes land on the telephone, and she briefly considers calling Jack Hammond and demanding that he give her back her old life. To attend her mother's funeral, to be held by Olivia, to feel something again.

In the end, Alex takes Sky to bed under a thick pile of blankets, and her sleep is filled with nightmares where snow falls in Dallas, and she wanders the streets, screaming for her mother, who cannot hear her call.

.

.

Olivia has never been to Texas, and cannot think of a worse reason for her first trip there as she touches down in Dallas and embraces Alexander Cabot, who seems diminished without the two blondes who have always bookended him.

She moves into mothering mode quickly, encouraging Al to eat and sleep. She keeps a wary eye on his drinking, and makes sure that he is working through any paperwork Darcie left behind. As parents most often do, the Cabots had originally arranged to leave everything to Alexandra. After the cartel case, some reshuffling had occured, and Olivia is touched and conflicted when she finds out that some of it was shuffled to her.

When he falls into a fitful sleep the night before the funeral, Olivia slips silently, curiously into Alex's teenage bedroom. It is mostly intact: the walls showcase 80s movie posters alongside Feminist icons and clippings of political milestones of the decade.

Liv breathes deep of the ghost of her lover in the space, fingers reverently gliding over academic awards and dusty photos where Alex's smile beams out at her. On the bookshelf, she reads titles one after the other - Rubyfruit Jungle nestled right up next to Little Women . . . Jane Rule, Roald Dahl, Beckett, a gathering of strange bedfellows that brings a wisp of a grin to Olivia's face.

Finally she sits down on the narrow, creaking bed and picks up the tattered stuffed penguin at the pillow. The sigh that pitches from her is swollen with melancholy.

"His name is Shivers," Al tells her from the doorway, and Liv jumps at the sound. He fills the doorframe with his height and heavy sense of his grief.

"Of course it is," Liv sniffs with amusement, giving the flightless bird another once-over.

"You should have him," Alexander furthers.

The amount of restraint that Olivia has to employ to keep from confessing that the man's daughter is still alive is utterly monumental in that moment. She binds it, snuffs it, locks it away again and again. No confession comes, just a smile for Alex's father, and a nod.

The morning following the funeral, Liv flies out of Dallas with Shivers in her suitcase, leaving behind her a dozen yellow roses on Darcie's grave.

.

.

In mid-April in Wittenberg, much to Alexandra's dismay, the ground remains frozen. Most of the snow slowly melts, however every now and then, a light dusting of fresh flakes comes down in the morning or overnight, then melts with the climb of the sun.

She has lost weight through the winter months, and the sharp planes of her face in the mirror are painful to acknowledge. No proper mourning of her mother had come to pass; Alex had simply filed the knowledge away as a part of the life she lost, and continued the monotonous plod forward in the strange play she now acted in each day.

Before April gave way to the slightly warmer thaw of May, the insurance firm where she was working threw a social mixer - to break up the long change of seasons, they explained. Tina, who was concerned about Alex's weight loss and isolation, had pushed hard for her to attend, even if it was just to get out of the house for something other than work and errands.

So, on the evening of the mixer, Alexandra found herself at a local drink lounge called Doubles, quietly sipping a Shirley Temple. Her co workers were made up mostly of the usual office-job types: clad in off-the-rack suits, soft-spoken and nerdy, often shy, and unfortunately not very interesting. Alex stayed hugged to the bar, drinking and trying to decide how long she had to stay in order for her escape to be considered polite rather than asocial.

"Mind if I join you?"

The man that belonged to the voice was from the Claims Adjustment department of the firm. Alex had seen him around now and then, perhaps even passed polite words with him - but she couldn't recall his name. She waved her hand in the direction of the stool next to her in reply, and he settled in.

"You don't remember me, do you?" he chuckled, watching for the bar tender to free up so he could order a drink.

"I'm not so great with names," Alex told him apologetically.

"Well, I remember your name - Emily." He had a great smile, and he flashed it at her. "Mine is Greg."

"Thanks for reminding me."

He called to the bartender for a rum and coke, then checked if she wanted a refill, which she declined. "Where were you before Wittenberg?" he asked.

"Tulsa, Oklahoma," Alex told him, pulling from the pool of lies and backstory that she had been taught in October.

"Ah," his green eyes twinkled with amusement, "That explains it then."

"Explains what?"

"Why you seem to disdain Wisconsin winter so much."

"I didn't realize it was so obvious," Alex smirked.

He laughed, wrapping both hands around his highball glass. "Were you in insurance there?"

"No. No, this has been a big change for me," she admitted softly.

"Do you miss it?"

Alex startled. "Oklahoma?"

"Whatever it is you left behind."

The blonde paused, her blue eyes locked on the liquor in her glass. "Yes," she confessed, "I do."

They stayed at the bar, drinking slowly, while Greg asked her innocuous questions that were neither boring nor bothersome. Alexandra could feel herself relaxing, loosing herself from the lonely exile she had been prescribed. Before the evening was over, she even caught herself smiling at him, wanting to laugh at his simple jokes.

When the event began to empty out, she declined his offer for a ride home, and was genuinely surprised when he accepted it without pushing back. Neither did he ask her for her number, or to see him again. Alex wondered on her taxi ride home if perhaps she had misinterpreted a man's intentions for the first time since adolescence.

Her worry was quashed, however, when Greg reappeared at the office beginning of the week, and asked her if she would like to have lunch together. She agreed, and it slowly became a regular thing.

By the time he finally asked her on what could be considered an actual date, Alexandra was anxious at the idea of going back to being alone.

She considered the long winter, in which she hadn't put up a tree or celebrated the holidays. Considered the death of her mother, and the nightmares that had followed, leaving her breathless and shaking. Alex even considered the ring, somewhere back in New York, that might never find its way onto the finger of the love she had been forced to abandon.

Facing down the idea of that isolation for the rest of her life was too much to bear.

Alex said yes.

[petekaos]

Earn and pear for your ask game:))

Lesbian icon earn pls

hiiiii nonnies!! ah hell yeah i get to talk about earn and pear! ty ty :^)

earn:

favorite thing about them: 

i just adore how spunky she is! she’s super sassy and knows her worth and also sticks up for her friends so much? like saying that ctrl+s won’t play unless sarawat’s there... and also completely roasting man when he did that shitty catfishing thing. she doesn’t take any shit and i love her for that!

least favorite thing about them: 

honestly... we didn’t learn much about her character for me to have a thing to dislike about her. full shade at the 2gether writers!!! i love earn :’)

favorite line:

god i cannot for the life of me remember the exact line but when the band is practicing and pam comes in and the boys do some dumb shit and she says “you guys just can’t control yourselves around hot girls” or something to that effect. THAT’S lesbian excellence!

brotp: 

EARN AND WAT!!! i just love the idea of them being mlm/wlw solidarity and best friends and earn roasting the fuck out of sarawat 24/7. she calls him lovesick and a dumbass but then again, he’s her dumbass and if anyone says one word against him, then they perish on the spot. ride or die gay best friends :^)

otp: 

earnpear!! nothing hits as much as earnpear and their direct parallels to sarawatine i swear!

notp: 

earn x any man. illegal.

random headcanon: 

earn is THE most confident sapphic except when it comes to pear. sarawat continuously makes fun of her blushing whenever pear is around and not being able to get any words out dhsnfhs but in the end she manages to romance her somehow and they end up going on cute café dates :’) 

unpopular opinion: 

she’s the best. y’all don’t appreciate earn enough.

song i associate with them: 

hmmm, i don’t know if i have a particular song for earn? i don’t frequently think about songs for characters unless they mean the world to me fhsnfhd but maybe honey by kehlani! i’ve always really liked that song and i think it fits her well. “i’m a beautiful wreck, a colourful mess, but i’m funny.” has Big Earn Vibes!

favorite picture of them: 

i apologise for the shite quality but her expression in this one KILLS me!

pear: 

favorite thing about them: 

she has such gentle and calming vibes!! also she seems so so determined to learn guitar and is such a good friend and so so supportive of tine and his endeavours and i just love how tender she is :’)

least favorite thing about them: 

again, i love pear with my whole heart and we don’t know NEARLY enough about her for me to say something i dislike about her honestly. she’s wonderful!

favorite line: 

not gonna lie, i straight up don’t know if she has any pivotal lines in the show. they really did her dirty like that! i do really love her little “me too!” when green says that he’ll perform a solo to support tine, that was super cute :’)

brotp: 

pear and tine!!!! they just have so many things in common and they would be such good friends. i’m just picturing them going out together to a little restaurant and catching up on each other’s lives, late nights spent studying and practicing guitar for the next concert, gushing about sarawat and earn to each other... they would be so pure! also pear and boss! boss would carry her around campus on his shoulders, i dare you to look me in the eye and say i’m wrong.

otp: 

earnpear. all the way baby!

notp: 

again, pear x any man. i disagree. 

random headcanon: 

i think pear would be really good with animals! i just picture her having a dog and a cat and a couple of birds in the future and taking care of all of them wonderfully, i think she finds solace in being with animals and that they calm her down!

unpopular opinion: 

she’s underrated as hell :(

song i associate with them: 

again, i don’t think i particularly have any song associated with her. off the top of my head, i’d say daughter by l devine! it’s a nice lil song :^)

favorite picture of them:

she looks so so cute here, i love how she’s put stickers on her guitar already, she’s so cute :^)

send me a character!

[actutrends]

Halsey Releases New Album ‘Manic’ – Listen To Her Highly-Anticipated Third LP

Listen

January 17, 2020 12: 01AM EST

After previewing her new music for months, Halsey has finally dropped ‘Manic.’ The world is about to go nuts over it, so listen to Halsey’s first album in three years.

Manic is here, and Halsey fans could not be any more hyped. The 25-year-old singer released her album, the first since 2017’s hopeless fountain kingdom, on Jan. 17, and to say that fans have been ready for it would be an understatement. Boasting 16 tracks – including singles “Clementine,” “Graveyard,” “You Should Be Sad,” and the chart-topping “Without Me” – and appearances by Alanis Morissette, Dominic Fike, and Suga of BTS, Manic may be the first great album of 2020 and the decade.

This new album is “Halsey’s raw autobiographical portrait of the artist as a young mess, craving her share of love and tenderness in a hostile world,” according to Rolling Stone’s review of the album. Yet, Halsey “is a mess who’s a hungrily ambitious artist seeing herself as a mirror for her entire generation.” The album, dubbed “excellent” and earning four-out-of-five stars, is described as a “thrilling quest” as she tries to find peace of mind. While her previous album was a “Romeo and Juliet trip, set in a Shakespearean dystopia,” Rolling Stone says Manic is “about the here-and-now real world and her fight for a place in it as a young woman.”

Halsey (real name Ashley Frangipane) said that the reason Manic would up the way it is was due to “a very, very personal conversation,” Halsey explained during the intimate “Evening With Halsey” event at L.A.’s Grammy Museum in September, per Billboard. “It’s part of the reason I’ve been using a lot of Ashley talk in this album, because it does feel very much like a look behind the curtain in a way. A curtain I never intended to put up but it’s just kind of there, because I was young and scared of showing—I didn’t know who I was deeply so it was irresponsible for me to tell the whole world, ‘This is who I am!’ And the world is like, ‘You’re 21, no it’s not.’ I’m going to be 25 in a couple of days, which is terrifying because I still feel 19.”

“I sat there to make this album and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to make an angry album,’” she said when speaking to Apple Music’s Beats 1 host Zane Lowe in September 2019.  “And I wasn’t mad. It’s exciting. … I’m closing a chapter in this record that I feel very much like I needed to put the final word on, put the nail in the coffin, if you will. Graveyard, marry it.”

One week ahead of Manic’s release, Halsey paid homage to many of the icons who paved the way for a young woman from Edison, New Jersey to become an international pop star. In the video for “You Should Be Sad,” a country-inspired anthem about heartbreak and moving on, Halsey channels her inner “Dirrty”-era Christina Aguilera, Shania Twain, Carrie Underwood, and the American Horror Story-version of Lady Gaga. It actually is a Gaga reference! But it’s not that one specifically. It’s me referencing Gaga who was referencing Bianca Jagger in AHS Hotel,” she tweeted.

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